Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

This is not rocket science. However, the Great Divide that this nation is experiencing over something as simple as wearing a mask when it is necessary to save a life, is tearing it apart. Furthermore, nowhere is that divide made more evident than from the White House. President Trump who was never someone who was in favor of wearing a mask, said in an interview on Fox that he “believes in and supports” masks, but he will leave the call up to the governors. Why won’t the president just go camera (not twitter) and simply say, “let’s all wear masks” to beat COVID-19? He probably won’t. That is because the president hasn’t convinced himself to take that leap, that the curve that doctors used to talk about, may not happen in time before the November elections. If only the president was sure, that would make him look good in his handling of the virus from a federal standpoint. Nevertheless, absent a vaccine before November, the president will only talk about masks to keep his base intact, about not taking away “their freedoms” to not wear a mask despite the medical evidence. The president as he once said that he “doesn’t take responsibility”, will surely place the blame on the governors and the doctors at the CDC, even though the doctors work for him. By the time these words are read by Dispatch readers, this nation will be thousands of deaths closer to 150,000, a number that is staggering in such a short period of time since the virus reached these shores.

Perhaps in an effort to save his reputation and live up to his Hippocratic Oath, the nation’s Surgeon General, Jerome Adams was said to be literally “begging” viewers of Fox News to wear masks. The fact that the Surgeon General could have gone on any network to make his plea, but instead went on Fox where he knows that the network of Hannity, Carlson and Co., will not criticize the president, and that his base listens to them. Or maybe Adams was sent to Fox to clarify what the president said on Fox a day earlier, knowing that when the camera is on the president, he has a tendency to go off on the deep end instead of sticking to the script. Adams no doubt knows that if he being a medical professional and someone who works for the president, his message to the president’s base would resonate with them more from a health standpoint, than from a political one. Adams, to his credit understands what Dr. Fauci is doing/saying and that his role is that of a doctor who is supposed to look out for the medical welfare of people. Adams also knows that conservatives will push back if they believe that their “peroneal liberties and freedoms” are threatened, as in being ordered to wear masks. In his begging, Adams tried to walk a fine line by trying to assure the president’s base that taking away their “freedoms” wasn’t the intention, but he said something that the president should have said. Adams said that if “everybody” wore masks, then the nation “could open up” much sooner and more importantly, stay open.

That is the message that Gov. John Bel Edwards is trying to tell the voters of Louisiana. Attorney General Jeff Landry is at odds with Edwards’ order mandating that everyone who engages in the public must wear a mask, saying that the governor is stepping on the constitutional rights of the state’s residents. Landry has been a thorn in Edwards’ side since both of them were elected to their respective positions in 2015. However, Landry supports the president, even during the impeachment hearing and trial in Congress. Edwards wants testing, washing hands, social distancing and wearing of masks, while Landry has COVID-19. Simple measures keeping people alive which is everybody’s right. John Bel Edwards is in his second term as governor so he can’t run again. Landry can run for governor if he wants. The wearing of masks has become a political issue. The president is keeping it that way and so is Landry. And somewhere in the middle of this political mess, thousands of people are dying. Until a vaccine is in the hands of doctors and nurses, a mask seems to be the best thing that we have when in the company of each other. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.